Coming Home

Well we have made it home. This country is amazing! It has everything! Except hamams, but I'm sure I can track one down in Little Turkey somewhere in downtown Baltimore. And I take back all my grumbling about getting home. It was actually quite a snap. I'll bore you with the details 

Friday: I kick myself first thing in the morning for not packing the day previous when we had our nanny and I could actually get something done. Instead, I hold Alastair for half the day, lest he scream when I set him down. I get a few things done, but I wait for Leslie to get home from her last day at work at the Consulate EVER so I can pick it up again. I make dinner from scratch so I can use the remaining few ingredients we have. Then I pack. And pack and pack and pack. The kids go to bed. We pack some more. And clean. All of our bags are within ounces of the 50 lb. limit. I open them up, reshuffle some items and repack. I pictured myself being done at 5 p.m. and enjoying my last raki on the porch celebrating a job well done. It is 11:30 and I'm exhausted and I have yet to have a sip of raki. We still have stuff that won't fit in any bag. We're kicking ourselves for not being organized and mailing the stuff to ourselves earlier. We make a giant pile on the couch and drop a pile of Lira and an address and leave a note for our neighbor to please mail it to us. We are cads.

Suddenly it is 2 a.m., time to rouse ourselves and do some last minute cleaning. I run to the top of the complex to meet the van that will take us to the airport and ask the driver to please come into the complex since we have so many dammmn bags. He's driving a giant Sprinter and with the help of the security guards is able to JUST make it into the narrow driveway. The guards are super helpful and assist with our bags. INFINITELY helpful actually. We leave our place a mess, hop in the van and start heading out. An unnamed cat of ours has sullied his carrier and the smell is foul. We have yet to leave our complex. Oh boy.

We make it to the airport in no time at all, thank goodness. One of Leslie's coworkers and one of our and Archie's best friends meets us at the airport to help in case the cat situation doesn't get settled. He's offered to take them if we need to arrange a pet shipper after we depart. We hire a porter to help with the dozen or so parcels we have with us. Stroller, car seats, luggage, carry ons, cats. It is well worth every cent. We say a heartfelt goodbye to our friend and make our way to get some simit for our friends in DC and head to our gate. Flight number one is perfect. A no frills plane with no annoying movie screens in the seat-back. A decent, yet not quite good breakfast. And then we're in Frankfurt.

Archie and Gokhan

Little Mister and his backpack of cars and toys

Leslie with an excellent game face for 5 a.m. Probably smiling because we got the cats on board.

Our lunch at Deutsch.

About to take full advantage of the lie-flat seat.

Moley stuffed under a console. I gave him some chicken. He was pleased.

Frankfurt airport is large and not easy to maneuver with a cat and two children and other assorted bags. We find our favorite airport restaurant and get some hearty German breakfast in us before Archie goes off to the play area. Actually Archie has little interest in the play area, Moley has no interest in any food or water and Alastair is only slightly fussy from being woken up at a quarter to three in the morning. Actually, he's done a stellar job of traveling for being a lad of such a tender age.

After our LENGTHY layover, it is time to load up on the plane for the final leg. I buy a half liter of water for 4 Euros and feel very poor. Especially after our (ahem) $80 lunch which consisted of two main dishes, two bowls of fruit, two coffees and two waters. As we enter the plane, we are asked if we need help finding our seats. I always turn them down, because I like to do a little geocaching to find my seat. But they stop us as we are turning right towards the seats of the common person and divert us into this inner sanctum of calm and beauty and luxury known to those outside of our income bracket as Business Class. *Sigh!*

I believe I was massaged while soft flute music played for the rest of the trip, but I may be wrong. I do know that I took advantage of the complimentary champagne before we even had to put our seat belts on, that I tried the Riesling with dinner and that I had to try the Alt Bier before the cheese course because I like a good German Alt. Archer addressed Leslie and I as Mummy and Daddy and Alastair just smiled and cooed for all around us. It was a good time.

Then there was this crude and loud country where we landed and I said to Leslie, what foul creatures could tolerate such a coarse and calorie-filled society and Leslie said "Eric dear (the effects of Business Class had yet to wear off for her), this is America." I Edward Munch'ed right then and there. "Children, get your things, we're moving back to Business Class." Unfortunately, Business Class is NOT a country and besides, we needed a visa to reenter, so we plodded along with the hordes towards humorless Border Patrol agents that scowled skeptically at each of us and scoffed at the cool European air we had surrounding us. My orange pants certainly did not help matters. Actually, they were perfectly fine and professional and we were soon on our private shuttle van on its way to deposit us at Faceless Towers, Apartments for the Likes of You.

Papa's Day Out Volume IV

Tuesday it is! And by Tuesday, I mean that I have someone watching the boy and I can go have adventures. Or work. Today was adventure day. I owed someone some money for a little something to be seen later. (Hint: it goes well with Volvo Blue) I trekked downtown to the Grand Bazaar to make my purchase complete and decided to do some exploring while out. My grand plan was to visit the cafe owned by the very nice Americans, drink some delicious drip coffee and have a delicious sandwich, then explore Topkapi Palace and finish up with an islak burger.

Well. Denizen Cafe, whether it still be owned by said Americans, was completely empty and devoid of food options at 11:45 a.m. The lunch crowd must be scant. I peeked inside and was told they were open and was offered an espresso drink. None of the regular staff were seen. It was disorienting and a little sad as I haven't been very good about stopping by when we're in the neighborhood.

So next stop Topkapi Palace. I had only been once before and cut my visit short due to a very active toddler. The gates were only half open and guarded by men with machine guns. In other words, Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays. There was a sign stating as much. I then decided to take advantage of Gulhane Park. I found my way in and took a bench and tried to relax and noticed the place was full of parrots. Emirgan Park has several, but they were everywhere in Gulhane.

Spot the parrots. There are two.

The park was dark and quite littered. Not nearly as kept up as Emirgan. I was thinking there had to be more to it. So I wandered. And I found a çay bahçe! There is a lovely tea garden on the Bosphorus side of the park and it made up for all the weirdness of the rest of the park. It has an amazing view of almost everything. Tea is expensive at 8 TL for a pot, but it contains about 10 cups of tea so the deal isn't that bad considering. I could only consume about five cups before I started feeling like I was on drugs, so I paid up and wandered off again.

Turkish version of America's Cup. The far boat totally won this race.

My çay and I.

A pilot boat reclaiming a pilot from the large ship. All the ferries had to wait until this ship had passed. There was quite a backup. No one honked their horns though.

After the tea, I found an exit and walked back towards the Galata Bridge so I could ascend the hill for my burger. It is quite a walk, but I found some nice images.

An old commuter train.

Some creepy boxcars.

Three ferries all in a row.

A Celebrity Cruise ship coming in to dock.

The islak burger was amazing in its simplicity and price. I read about it here, but it was a different restaurant that I patronized. I went to one by Tunel and found them for 2.50 TL each. With an ayran, it came to 7 TL total. Not bad. I was famished too. I could've eaten more, but I think these were just so so. Maybe the Kizilkayalar burgers were the ones to have. I went away happy and stuffed. I just needed something to soak up all that caffeine!

The rest of the day was spent coming home, which is old hat and uneventful anymore. I took a seat outside and watched the ships roll by and wished my sore throat were gone so I could enjoy my view with a beer. Serefe!

This is Teno. 299 meters long on her way to Constanza, Romania. Sail on, Teno!

At home.

Absence and Presence

It's been a while since I've been here! There are numerous reasons for this.

1. I have started watching Breaking Bad. So while the boy sleeps, I sometimes try to catch up on my stories. I'm midway through season 4. I really like this program, but watching four seasons of a TV drama can suck up your limited productive time.

2. I have found myself way behind in posting so I end up not posting at all. I have a few drafts that I want to publish just so I can clear the plate, but they all happened so long ago that I forget a lot of the magic and end up skipping the finer details.

3. I write this for you, but more importantly for me. I enjoy writing of the "thereness" of here, but I've been here so long that there is actually here. Got it? When I first landed in this country it seemed like everything was different so I wanted to comment on that. I realize now that these differences will follow me to every new place I go. I continue to celebrate them. I think they are just piling up quite fast and also, that they become less different the longer I am here.

That said, I've been up to a lot and I've had a great time this summer. Let the reintroduction begin.

Papa's Day Out Pt. III

It was my day to go out and about and do something fun today. I didn't have anything in mind, plus it is now the HOT time of the year and after being outside for ten minutes in the morning, I was angry and had a headache, so I knew being outside would not do. Therefore, I did what any red-blooded American would do and went to the mall.

I packed up my european man bag (Moleskine, partially charged Kindle, Buddhism For Mothers, several pens), gassed up my Volvo station wagon and drove the one kilometer to our fancy pants mall. The Özel Güvenlik waved me right through. They saw me comin'. They didn't need to search my trunk. Privileged!

Caffe Nero was getting a little tiresome with their foamy lattes and cappucinos, so I opted for something more local and hit the Starby's or Starbucks as they call it here. Before sitting down with my drip coffee, black notebook and mopey face, I sauntered by the movie theater to check out their offerings. There were ten American movies all starring my least favorite actor, Explosions. There was the Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy thing. And some movie called Disconnect.

Let me tell you about going to the movies in Turkey! The movie theaters are nice! You buy your ticket at the mall level either from a kiosk or a live person. If you are like me and stutter your way through Turkish asking for your ticket, they will type YABANCI on it, which means "foreigner" and not like the "I Want to Know What Love Is" band. Why did she have to do that? It didn't matter because no one ever looked at my receipt.

Yabanci

After procuring your ticket, you descend into the recesses of the mall where it's all completely cool and quiet and very very clean. There are several areas in which to get your food, and several nice areas to sit and wonder if you should go see World War Z next week (starring...Explosions!). I ordered a kucuk menu which was a small popcorn and an orange drink. This is not important.

Outside of each theater is a barcode reader that will scan the barcode on your ticket. I don't know if this is important as I didn't see it until the film was over. You go to your assigned seat, which is kind of nice. This was also not important as nobody else came to join me in the theater. I sat with rapt attention through the twenty minutes of ads and finally a trailer for Rush, which gave me goosebumps and that I cannot wait to see.

Just as the movie was reaching it's apex in action and excitement, the lights came on. I forgot. They have intermissions at the movies. It actually worked out great since I could use the tuvalet, or toilet. The movie continued shortly after I found my seat and I was treated to some more fine Disconnect soundtrack. It is really great. I emerged back to the mall and felt disoriented so I did the most logical thing I can do when feeling disoriented and looked at some shoes. Nothing fancy. Just some Vans. They look a lot like the Target shoes I was wearing except I believe they will last longer. That did the trick. I was my old self again. The movie made me miss my boy, so I motored home and found him sleeping which allows me to type up this little tidbit for you lot. Enjoy!

Papa's Day Out 2

This being Wednesday, I had another well deserved day off. Really. I deserve a day off too.

At one point in my journeys, I had espied a children's playground and a large expanse of green fields right next to it on the Asian side of the city. I thought it would be a great spot to take all of the children from our playgroup and today had the opportunity to do a little recon. The weather was drizzly and cool, which beats hot and humid any day. I made my way down to the harbor and we (collective we, I was all by my lone) set off. I alighted at Anadolu Hisari, the older and Asian counterpart to the castle on the European side.

I was pleased to see that there is a real neighborhood of shops and restaurants there and not only houses, as I had three hours until the ferry picked me up for my ride back home. It is quite picturesque with the many older style houses and the ramparts of the castle looming high above. I liked it immediately. I decided to start walking and make my way back later since the main street was right by the ferry terminal.

I wandered down a few streets and found my way to Küçüksu Palace, which was...interesting. The building itself is quite nice, with severe ornamentation on every surface and obviously it has a lovely setting nestled against the Bosphorus. However, although it is a museum open to the public, it didn't seem all that ready for visitors. I approached it cautiously, wondering if it was in fact, open to the public. I saw several signs in Turkish and English pointing the way to the different parts of the grounds. I entered the gates and a small opening in the mirrored windows of the ubiquitous TSP or Turkish Security Pod (seriously, you see these EVERYWHERE) opened up so I could ask for a ticket. They do not take the MuzeKart there so I could not get in for free, but admission was only 5 TL (which, with the plummeting value of the Lira thanks to the Gezi Park protests, made it a little over $2.60) AND I received a free booklet on the place. In English!

I walked up to the building and politely wiped my feet and tried the door. Locked. The ticket merchant signalled for me to go around back and held up five fingers. Five minutes more? I suppose. I went around back and took a few photos and then tried the other door, as it looked more like a regular entrance. Locked. Now I saw the front door open and the man inside gestured for me to come back around to the front. I went in and he immediately said to me "Not tour guide!" That's okay, I have a booklet!

I didn't think a tour guide was really necessary anyway. It's a former palace, or pavillion, or whatever the translation of karsi is. There mainly just seemed to be a lot of rooms for sitting, each with a room full of completely sun-faded furniture and water damaged wood tables. The floors were an amazing mix of tiles of inlaid wood and others of inlaid ceramic. Each room also had stunning hand carved marble fireplaces of incredible size and were each topped by ornate mirrors. There was some very impressive trompe l'oeil all aorund, but in all, the place was quite shabby and run down and not a little depressing. I made my exit and felt relieved to be out of the watchful eye of the "not tour guide".

I attempted to do a little more exploring of the neighborhood, but it seemed that I was on the border of two neighborhoods, Uskudar and Beykoz. My ferry stop was in Beykoz, so I hung a left and went back in that direction. I strolled along the row of shops and restaurants, looking for a comfortable place to rest and grab a bite. I strolled all the way into residential areas, so I turned back and found a nice spot for börek right across from the ferry stop.

I ordered a small cheese pide, some spinach börek and a tea and some water and it came to all of 7.50 TL, not quite $5. After lunch I still had about 45 minutes for my boat so I sat by the ferry stop and read and wrote a little. A group of high school boys were busy being high school age boys and I was surprised how remarkably similar they are to their kin in the states.

I hopped off the boat at Emirgan (you may have heard of it) and climbed up to find a nice bench in the shade. I must say it was the most perfect day of the year. The early morning rain had turned to sun and back to thin clouds and the most refreshing cool breeze stopped by occasionally to remind me how good I had it that day.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I was antsy to get home and enjoy an afternoon coffee so I reluctantly removed myself from my perfect spot - after listening to parrots and crows have some serious conversations, after retrieving one soccer ball for some children and not being fast enough for the second one and watching it disappear down a hill, where they recovered it and one of its kin, where I was asked for a light by a different high school age boy who looked fourteen (and probably was), where I listened to a couple guys playing a guitar and singing (the first time I've seen anything like that here), and after I was heckled by a group of schoolgirls who tried to get my attention by calling out "Handsome! Handsome!" and giggled profusely when I said hello to one of them.

Turkish Security Pod. Most are plain white. This is a fancy yellow example.

A charming building by the ferry stop in Istinye.

On stepping off the boat in Anadolu Hisari.

A small square between castle remnants.

Some boats parked on the "Sweet waters of Asia", as this river is called (along with its sibling).

A nice bright red house, next to a nice bright blue house, next to a nice white house.

Some of the ornamentation of Küçüksu Palace's exterior.

Some lovely grounds.

Back entrance (locked).

More of the grounds. I wonder if this place is ever busy.

A grand gate leading to the Bosphorus.

A house nestled against a castle tower.

Like two ships passing in the balmy summer days. The view from my new favorite bench.

A little video for you!

Trabzon Post Script

Here are some photos posted without comment. The artsy shots, if you will.

Trabzon and Rize Day Three

Rize!

Day three was çay day, which is fitting because Rize is the capital of Turkish tea. We had an even more leisurely 10 a.m. pick up after our final wonderful breakfast and checking out of the hotel.

Our driver hailed from Rize and you could tell he was glad to be driving along his streets and showing Rize off to us and us off to his friends in Rize. The first stop was at our driver's brother's fish restaurant to take our lunch order. We would head up to Rize castle first and come back down for lunch waiting for us. Rize castle is perched high up on the hills above the main town below. There is a çaybahçe, or teagarden, up there and it is a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy it too! Tea grows everywhere in and around Rize. Seriously. In between buildings, on vacant hillsides. There are no vacant lots because they are all being utilized for growing tea. On the way up, our driver stopped and grabbed a few handfuls from someone's tea farm. After leaving the castle, we stopped at a neighborhood collection point for tea where people sit and separate the leaves from the stems. It was a very unassuming building in a residential neighborhood, but most people seemed to be tied to tea in one way or another in that town.

From there, our driver went to the local tea factory and coerced them to let us in where they were very generous and offered us a full tour of their facilities and then invited us to share a cup of tea with them! Them being two of the managers, not the entire factory workforce! We were all very amazed that they would just open the place up to a bunch of foreigners without any notice. I learned all about tea production and selection. Çaykur, the company that welcomed us, is supposedly the largest tea producer in the world. Who knew? Lunch was the local special hamsi, or anchovies, breaded and fried just like almost all fish I've tried in Turkey. They were good, but required a lot of work to separate the flesh from the bones. They weren't quite small enough to be able to eat them bones and all.

(Çaykur is also the sponsor of the local football club. So much a sponsor that the team changed their name from Rizespor to Çaykur Rizespor. Their logo is a tea leaf. Quaint.)

Our driver wanted to head home to freshen up, so he dropped us off at another tea/botanical garden so the boy could get some time being outside and run around. We were so full of tea from the castle, tour, lunch, that we abstained, although it too was a great place to sit back and enjoy a cup. It was located on a hilltop opposite the castle and was covered by large shady trees. The boy did indeed have a blast running around and making lots of new friends and soon it was time to go. We made a few last minute stops and were soon off to the airport for the short flight home before we all had to get up and go to work the next day. It was a full and fulfilling trip. It's a corner of the country that not even our Turkish friend had visited before. I was glad to have seen it and experienced so much in such a small amount of time. Thank you Trabzon and Rize!

Our driver, picking some tea for us. This is all black tea, by the way.

At Rize Castle. That's all tea on those hillsides opposite.

What a welcome stop this was. I think we were exhausted by being in the van so much the previous two days. This day just seemed luxurious.

Not a bad view from the playground.

The boy found a minaret his own size. Li'l muezzin.

Our sweet ride for the weekend. "Allah Korusun" means "God Bless". There's the requisite picture of Ataturk and in the opposite corner a sticker for the local football club Çaykur Rizespor.

The tea factory. I have to say that they've got it down.